The hope embedded in forgiveness
Easter 2 | John 20:19-31
Last week, the disciples raced each other to the tomb. Now they’ve locked themselves inside. One would think a lot has happened. But one would be wrong. It’s the same day.
The only thing that has happened is that Jesus is risen.
That’s it.
Well, if we want to get technical about it, Mary told them about the tomb, Peter and John raced to the tomb, saw it was empty, went back, Mary met Jesus again, he told her the plan, and she returned and told it to the rest of the disciples.
That’s what has happened.
So, apparently, the good news that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead means they lock their doors.
Let’s get the Anti-Semitism out of the way.
It says that they locked the doors for fear of “the Jews” which is funny that Jews would fear “the Jews” if “the Jews” means…Jews. Clearly it doesn’t.
Secondly, the Judean people didn’t call themselves “Jews” in first Century Jerusalem. So, it doesn’t make sense.
Thirdly, their fear of a religious or ethnic group makes no sense in this context.
What does make sense is fear of reprisal from Rome or Temple leadership. If they are scared of anything at this moment, it is not because they actually are threatened, but out of the fear of being threatened. And that is a huge distinction.
The anti-Semitic use of John’s gospel distracts us from the story, however. Especially the greater point: Christ is risen! And the disciples have locked the door in fear.
So what do we do with this fearful Easter story?
In a sense, this is a simple story of belief. The disciples’ fear and forgiveness by Jesus is matched by the desire of Thomas to experience that too.
But I think we get hung up in the story’s confusing elements. And because this simple story can read like a “teachable moment” for one of the disciples.
So I want to highlight a few things we might overlook.
1. The opposite of belief isn’t doubt. It’s fear.
The disciples have locked themselves up in fear. Any centering of this story around Thomas as a bad guy is wrong. The disciples, the whole lot of them, are expressing a greater lack of faith than Thomas.
2. Where is Thomas?
We don’t know why Thomas isn’t with them or where he has gone. So we’re left to speculate. So then the question becomes where could he be. And because the other disciples are afraid and in the Passion story, Thomas expresses a willingness to follow Jesus into death (which is super brave) I’m convinced that Thomas is the one disciple rejecting fear.
So then, where might he be? My guess is he’s doing what Jesus told them to do. So he’s probably feeding the hungry.
3. Jesus breathes on the disciples.
This definitely read differently in 2020, didn’t it? Receive the Holy Spirit…
Jesus shows up to the disciples and essentially does three things. He proves to them he’s not dead. Check. Then he says “Peace be with you.” He wants them operating from a place of peace, not fear. Check. Then he breathes on them. Which is weird. Let’s not shy away from that. It’s weird.
He breathes on them. But he won’t be breathing on Thomas. So, I guess, Thomas missed out.
4. Jesus tells them to forgive.
In that first appearance, Jesus offers two teachings. That one about fear. And then one about forgiveness.
Forgive. This is Jesus’s resurrection message. After God raised him from the dead. Because he was crucified and beaten by Rome. After the Temple leaders sought his demise. And after Judas betrayed them.
Jesus’s one clear message to people still experiencing all of that pain is: forgive.
And
“if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
You retain the sin you refuse to forgive.
That includes Judas. And “the Jews”. Even the evil empire.
While preachers obsess about the supposed doubt of Thomas, Jesus is talking about the sin we bear when we refuse to forgive. No wonder we’d rather be distracted by Thomas!
Speaking of whom…
5. Thomas receives the Good News.
From the Spirit-filled disciples. But he wants more than that. Why? It isn’t really doubt, I don’t think. He missed seeing Jesus because he was busy being Jesus. And it means he doesn’t get to be one of the twelve without it. He’d always be a second degree to Kevin Bacon, not a first.
But for us, we can recognize this bit of evangelism is how the rest of the world will receive the Good News.
6. Thomas doesn’t need what the others got after all.
While the rest got breathed on and told to forgive, and despite his earlier protestations that he needs to touch Jesus, Thomas sees Jesus and, like Mary, declares him “My Lord and my God!”
The traditional condemnation of Thomas was based only on his words and never his actions.
Because, in the end, he didn’t need what the others got. But Jesus wants him to be included.
7. Jesus calls the receivers of Good News blessed.
Often treated like a dis of Thomas, Jesus’s statement about blessing is far more appropriate to anyone after the disciples, who receive the Good News without a resurrection sighting.
This is a story of belief.
Just not the one we often take it for.
Because fear erodes belief.
Which means that our attempts to preserve our faith that come from fear only serve to destroy. It leads to locking ourselves in and refusing to do the work we’re called to do. It leads to racism, sexism, and transphobia. And fear is the fuel of our one-sided culture war.
Fear prevents us from believing that a risen Christ destroys death and preserves death’s grip on us. Fear pairs with our lust for power and engenders our desire to control.
But…
Belief begins from the absence of certainty, power, and sustainability. It comes from knowing, not that everything will be all right, but through Christ it actually can be.
Because, when we let go of that desire for the perception of control, we might actually gain some control in our lives. When we forgive. Show mercy. And love our neighbors as ourselves.
Jesus offers his disciples, including us, the secret to belief: forgiveness.
Forgiveness takes humility.
It takes the grace of God. And we need to be willing to see the dignity of others to be able to forgive them.
It steals the desire to dehumanize others and to make them irredeemable. To lock them up in our mental prisons and throw away the key. In short: to be consumed by the power of death.
Forgiveness is our superpower. Not merely for the stuff that Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call “cheap grace,” but all the things which would otherwise consume us.
Obsession, pain, misery, nostalgia, greed, jealousy.
Forgiveness saves us from ourselves. And it helps us to quite literally save lives.
Jesus is offering us that humility now. Here.
That’s the Good News we’re blessed to hear today. Regardless of whether any one of us has ever seen it. Blessed are you in believing anyway.